"I genuinely feel safer up here. I don't think you can understand that, but I do," she told Eyewitness News.
The 85-year-old fought the fire with her 86-year-old husband, Winston, saving their home - just like they did in a 1978 fire that hit the Palisades.
Their home is one of only three still standing at the top of their Pacific Palisades street.
"I used the hose to control the ground fire and stop that end of the house from burning. I wasn't sure where Winston was. I couldn't contact him, but it turned out he was at the south end of the house doing the same thing. Using a host to keep the flames from touching the house," said Susan.
The couple's son, Mark Salser, lives outside Seattle. He knew his parents were unlikely to evacuate, even if their home was surrounded by fire.
"I thought I was going to lose them both. I actually thought that I had when I was seeing the coverage," Mark said.
In addition to fighting the fire themselves, Susan and Winston Salser credit the nearly 100 live oak trees that Winston planted in their backyard to help prevent their home from catching fire.
When asked how he explains how his elderly parents saved their home, he replied:
"Tenacity... Both of my parents are really smart people and are adept at dealing with things."
"You build a life, it's hard to imagine how you leave that. I don't know that that's a wise thing to do," their son added.
Winston was injured fighting the fire with his garden hose, suffering burns on his arms and legs that will keep him in the hospital for a week. But his wife says he'll be OK - and even without water or power, she hasn't left her home and has no plans to.
"This is heaven for me, this location. I'm almost 85 years old and the remodel of this house was my job that I completed 12 years ago, and here I stay. Whether it's as a human being or ashes I do not know, but so far it's as a human being," said Susan.